3i Infrastructure delivers decent H1 with income beat

Infrastructure investment group 3i Infrastructure (3iN) said that its portfolio continues to deliver strong earnings growth, as first-half income came in ahead of expectations.

The company said in a trading update that total income and non-income cash during the six months since 31 March totalled £103m, up 5% year-on-year.

In July, 3iN sold its stake in Dutch waste treatment and recycling company Attero for a 31% premium, which "continue[d] our extensive track record of creating value through successfully managed exit processes and provides further evidence of our ability to sell portfolio companies at a significant uplift to book value," said Scott Moseley and Bernardo Sottomayor, managing partners and co-heads of European infrastructure.

"Our portfolio continues to deliver strong earnings growth and attractive reinvestment opportunities across the majority of our assets. These factors are likely once again to drive performance ahead of 3iN's target return."

3iN said it remains on track to deliver an 11.9p-per-share dividend to shareholders this year, which is expected to be fully covered by net income. Last year the payout was 11.15p.